Ch. 4

Disclaimer: Do I really need to be putting these up? If I seriously owned any of this, I would probably be somewhere warm tanning. And I'm not.

She was about to open her mouth, when she heard Rougey speak behind her.

"Mistress, the food is ready now." With that, she curtsied and left. As they both walked into the large dining room, Minerva motioned for him to take a seat, and sat down on another plush beige chair. She didn't care much for the extremely high back of the chair that was at the head of the table, so she just sat opposite from Harry, even though tradition rules stated she should sit at the head.

Looking at the plates set out, she nearly drooled. Rougey had cooked up all her favorites; the plates before them held roast beef, potatoes, tons of vegetables, and even a pudding for desert. She could hear her stomach sighing with pleasure at the first bite. The food was magnificent, as usual. When she looked at Harry, she could see he was feeling the exact same; happy to have food. He, however, was shoveling in as much as he could. She probably would have done the same, if she was eating alone.

"So pwoffeshor," He paused, swallowing a huge mouthful of mashed potatoes. "I asked you when we left the Dursley's about where you were the day my parents were murdered." He looked at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

"Well, I had heard rumors that your parents were killed, and that you would be sent to live with Lily's sister, so I went to watch them." I wanted to see how you might be treated if you were to grow up in that house.

I was sadly disappointed, however. That cousin of yours, the entire day I was watching that house, he had tantrums that shook the dust from the walls, and screamed for sweets the entire day."

"Yeah, that'd be Dudley all right." He looked like nothing had changed, either.

"I visited you for the next few weeks, and what I saw was horrible; you were being pinched and poked and hit by that thing you call a cousin, and you never once cried."

"Why didn't you stop it then?"

"I was forbidden to make any contact with them by Dumbledore," she explained. She felt the emotion rising in her throat, which meant that it was time to change the subject. Unfortunately, he came up with another question before she could open her mouth. He was so good at asking questions.

"Can you tell me about my mother?" he asked. And the emotion rose again. Where to start? She took a deep breath, and began, willing tears not to come. They always came when she talked about Lily.

"Your mother was one of the smartest witches in her year, almost rival to Ms. Granger." She was exceptionally good at transfiguration, and I was hoping she'd one day become an animagus. As I said before, her parents died in her fifth year, right about when she was leaving for the summer. Now, she had started writing me in the summer of her third year, so I wasn't surprised to get mail from her the first week of vacation, but I was dismayed at the letters contents, due to the fact that they contained news of your grandparent's deaths."

He interrupted her. "How did they die?"

"She told me they were killed in a car crash." His mouth opened and shut like a goldfish gasping for air.

"Until I got my Hogwarts letter, Aunt Petunia told me my parents died in a car crash."

This made her mad. How dare the woman do such a thing! First of which denying him knowledge of the wizarding world, and then playing out her parent's way of death as his own. She must have hated Lily very deeply, but that didn't make it right to take it out on her only nephew.

"Are you alright?"

This snapped her out of it. She was obligated to finish her story now.

"Well, as I said before, I was dismayed to hear her parents had died, and I came looking for her, which was when I met your disgraceful aunt."

"What did she say to you?"

"Oh, the usual nastiness when she found out I was a witch." I assume she was grieving in her own way, but she was forcing her sister out of the house, as it had been left to her and your great aunt, who I assume was equally horrible. Almost at once I invited her to live at my manor during the summer, and she accepted."

"And she stayed here until she married my dad?"

"Yes, she stayed until she was engaged to marry your father, and they'd purchased that small house in godric's hollow."

There was a long pause, until Harry swallowed a last mouthful of food, and set down his fork. "Can you show me where I'll be sleeping?" He yawned. "I'm exhausted, and all the food made me want to go to sleep even more."

Of course! Why hadn't she seen him so tired? Maybe he wanted to dwell on the little bit of information she had given him. Standing up, she turned to him. "This way, Rougey's made you a bed in the room at the top of the stairs." She led him up the first set of stairs and opened the first door on the left. It used to be her younger brother's room, but he was killed in an experiment gone wrong after he had left Hogwarts. Her parents had never gotten over losing their only son. Some of his school robes still hung in the closet, next to all of his school things, packed up to be forgotten.

"This is where you'll stay for the remainder of the summer," she said. She indicated to the trunk and his owl, which were put at the end of his large bed.

The first thing he did was to open the window on the opposite wall and let his owl out. She flew to the windowsill before turning back to look at him. She hooted in pleasure and spread her snowy wings to fly out into the night sky. Minerva couldn't help but sigh. She always thought owls were very regal creatures.

"Good night professor." Harry said. He sat down on his bed in exhaustion.

"Good night Harry," she said.

She knew he was surprised at the use of his first name, but he looked too tired to care right now. Quickly, she walked out and shut the door so he could change and sink into much needed sleep. Walking into her own room, she quickly changed into a nightgown and washed her face in the adjoining bathroom. Coming back into the room, she noticed Rougey politely waiting for her.

"What is it Rougey?" she asked.

"Rougey just wanted to express her joy at the mistress' return!" She said. Rougey then burst into a big smile. Minerva went over to her and gave her a little hug. She was very fond of the little house elf, partially because she helped raise her when she was a tiny elf child.

When she was employed at Hogwarts a year after she left, she did not return home for very long in the summers. She only returned for about a week at most every year, because she loved the school so much. After teaching for almost five years, she received a letter that her mother had passed away of a sudden illness. Albus had given her permission to go home for awhile. It was around that time that Rougey was born to their previous house elf, Tilda.

While house elves usually strap their children to their back while working, Minerva would not hear of it. She took care of the elf child during the day, and it helped her cope with the passing of her mother if she pretended for awhile she was a mother herself with a child to worry about. It was foolish to play pretend to deal with with loss, but she didn't care.

After about a month, she had to leave her father and go back to school. She knew he was heartbroken, but he told her she had to go make her own way in the world. Every year after that until her father passed away she stayed almost the entire summer. When he died, he left the house to her and her older sister, but Armelle died when a rogue dragon went on a rampage in Scandinavia. She was always into magical creatures, and had had a job with the Scandinavian Dragon Preservation Society.

The house was all but abandoned when she went to school, with only Tilda and small Rougey left. After Tilda herself died, Minerva offered for Rougey to come with her to work at Hogwarts, but she refused, saying she needed to keep up the house in case Minerva came home during the holidays. She never did though, but she understood. Rougey didn't want to leave the house she grew up to serve, even if it's only resident didn't live there most of the time.

"I'm glad to be back for a little break myself," she said, sitting on the bed. Rougey bade her good night and disappeared with a crackle to go to her own room in the attic.

After she lay down on the bed, she extinguished the bedside lamp and thought for awhile. She thought about Harry. She only thought for a small while, for she sunk into slumber fairly quickly.

To Be Continued.

A/N: I am SOOO sorry for not updating for a looong time! Bows I took many hard classes this year, including a few college level courses, and they are just killing me. And when the take a break from killing me, they give me more homework. It's nuts. But now that I got done with a major research paper, I have some time on my hands. All of that will be spent towards writing this/thinking about writing this. I promise. To all of the readers here who have been waiting and threatening me all this while, THANK YOU! I can't apologize enough for this extended delay. Gomenasai! I will update soon!